The League

A Message from Senate Republicans

by Mark of New Jersey · December 20, 2012

Mark of New Jersey

Mark is a Founding Editor of The League of Ordinary Gentlemen, the predecessor of Ordinary Times.

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Christopher Carr says:

December 20, 2012 at 1:54 pm

But Mark, how else will the Paragould PD be able to pay for their AR-15s?Report
Will Truman says:

December 20, 2012 at 3:29 pm

Given the geographically and geologically precarious placement of red states, this is really not a good issue for Republicans to go to the mat on.Report
- Mark Thompson in reply to Will Truman says:
  
  December 20, 2012 at 4:14 pm
  
  Aye. I think one of things that irks me the most about this is that they’re complaining about lack of documentation for the Administration’s request (which, by the way, is significantly less than what the governors of the region are seeking) yet seemingly won’t be bothered to actually survey the damage themselves. Full documentation just isn’t possible at this point, and probably won’t be for awhile.
  
  Presumably, a good chunk of the “prevention” infrastructure that they’re hung up on and want to wait on is beach restoration, though I’m not certain about that. If my assumption is correct, then that’s a huge problem – if the beaches don’t get meaningfully restored, then a bad Nor’easter could easily destroy a good chunk of what actually survived Sandy or undo a lot of the recovery efforts.Report
- Nob Akimoto in reply to Will Truman says:
  
  December 20, 2012 at 5:21 pm
  
  Well like the debt ceiling stuff, they know that the Democrats aren’t sufficiently sociopathic to actually hold up funding on things like disaster relief or willfully plunge the country into another recession, so they figure they can get away with it.Report
Kolohe says:

December 20, 2012 at 4:13 pm

Because if we don’t pay for every single thing on a wish list, rather than just immediate aid relief, the ~~terrorists~~ hurricanes win.

The move would mark a significant shift from Congress’ actions following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the last storm to wreak destruction on a similar scale as Sandy. Within two weeks after Katrina’s storm surge flooded New Orleans and other Gulf Coast communities, Congress had appropriated $62.3 billion, and storm costs eventually topped $100 billion.

Because the one thing Katrina recovery was known for was effective and efficient use of reconstruction funds. So we should definitely give a blank check again.Report
- Mark Thompson in reply to Kolohe says:
  
  December 20, 2012 at 4:46 pm
  
  No one’s asking for a blank check, though – keep in mind that the Administration’s request is already substantially less than what the governors requested. In Katrina, the money was appropriated within two weeks. We’re now at two months. And the lesson of Katrina is to make sure the money to entities that can be trusted, not to refuse allocating the money entirely.
  
  I’d also feel a lot less angry about this if a significant number of these Senators had personally surveyed the damage involved here. So far as I’ve been able to tell, not a single GOP Senator or out-of-state congressman has made a trip to survey the damage at this point. Vitter was supposed to come, but backed out at the last minute, and that’s the closest I can find.Report
  - Kolohe in reply to Mark Thompson says:
    
    December 20, 2012 at 4:53 pm
    
    Having been on the business end of CODELs in a war zone, a touring Senator ain’t that great a use of resources.Report
    - Mark Thompson in reply to Kolohe says:
      
      December 20, 2012 at 5:03 pm
      
      Sure, but the point is that you’ve got a bunch of people who have no clue what’s going on – and apparently little interest in finding out – effectively insisting that they know best how bad things are (or aren’t). The message sent is “we don’t care enough about your part of the country to see how bad things are ourselves, we don’t trust people in your area of the country, even from our own party, to believe their assessment of how bad things are (or aren’t), and we aren’t interested in what people who have seen how bad things are (or aren’t), such as the President and FEMA, assess the damage.”Report
MikeSchilling says:

December 20, 2012 at 6:12 pm

That’ll teach your governor to hug Obama.Report